Obstacles of Love
by Clow Angel
Summary: This is an old story of mine which was revived thanks to someone who wanted me to complete it. The card captors thought things have finally calmed after the fiasco with the Sakura Cards and Eriol. They were about to be proven wrong. SxS


**AN:** Heya people. How long has it been since I've written anything for the CCS fandom? Too long. I wouldn't have even written anything else anymore except someone had e-mailed me asking me to continue my century-old fanfic "_**Obstacles of Love"**_ which I had deleted off the face of the FFnet a millennia ago. I had hoped to bury it, and forget it. Alas, it didn't happen. Someone found it somewhere! So, I am fulfilling her request for me to finish the fanfic. It is a multi-chaptered fic. And everything is going to be re-written. When I re-read the original, it made me cringe. God, it was terrible. But I'm keeping the lame title and lame chapter names because I'm too lazy to rename them.

**Chapter 01 - **_**"The Destruction"**_  
Written by _Clow Angel_

Kinomoto Sakura was bored. Very bored. As she strolled down the block on a fine Sunday afternoon, she recalled how she had asked Tomoyo and the others if they had wanted to peruse the many shops in the mall, but they had kindly declined the offer. Although it was a holiday, it didn't mean the girls were free. Exams were fast approaching and no one really had the time to simply hang out anymore, preferring instead to pour over thick books of text. With no one to accompany her, she walked the neighborhood streets with no destination in mind, humming a slightly subdued tune as she went, stopping now and then to admire a blooming bush here and a pretty bird in flight there.

Sakura sighed in frustration and wondered with a small frown on her pretty face, 'Why is it so slow today?' She glanced up at the blue sky dotted with fluffy cottony white clouds and sighed again. It wasn't fair. It was simply too nice a day to be stuck indoors frowning down at textbooks. If only her friends weren't such serious students.

When she finally glanced down, Sakura almost jerked in shock. Her key was glowing softly beneath her shirt. Looking this way and that, she found an arrangement of large bushes to be the perfect hiding place to release her key.

"Key that hides the forces of darkness!" she whispered as she held the small pink key in the palm of her hand, the wind picking up around her and rustling the bushes she used as cover as the magic built. A faint glow surrounded her, very much visible even under the strong sunlight. "I command you under contract! Show truth's image to me. Release!" The key lifted off her palms, light pouring from the small object as it elongated into her star staff. She grasped it in her hands and continued to stay hidden in the bushes as she extended her senses. Pinpointing the location, she almost wondered why it was always there even as she ran towards the park while trying to stay out of sight. It was rather difficult to do considering it was midday.

Eventually, she reached her destination — the park where so many events had taken place. It was from here where she felt the familiar yet so different sensation. The place where the giant penguin slide once stood was now reduced to a pile of rubble. The surrounding play items have also been similarly wrecked. It was a scene of destruction on a scale she had not witnessed in a long time.

As she ran closer to the blue slide, it completely fell apart. It was her now-trained reflexes that saved her from having her head smashed into the ground by a random flying piece of rubble. Distracted as she was, it was too late for her to react when an attack directed at her from behind nearly struck her, only to be saved by her sometimes comrade and sometimes enemy. Syaoran garbed in his traditional green robes burst forth from the surrounding shrubbery. Quick as lightning, he withdrew his sword and batted the ball of deep purple energy aside. The contact sent sparks flying before the orb crashed into the ground by a tree, felling it and creating a large crater.

Another large orb of purple energy was fired in their direction before long. "Lightning!" The two different attacks collided and sent off an explosion of magic that created huge gusts of wind. He took his place in front of the other girl, shielding her from the majority of the magical blast. "Sakura, what happened?"

"Syaoran-kun!" As surprised as she was at his sudden appearance, she had no time to really ask any questions with attacks coming in from all sides. As they swiftly dodged around attacks, she answered. "That was it. I sensed something and came running. I thought it was another card, but I don't think so. The sensation's different."

He nodded, scanning the area with keen eyes and senses.

"The park was already wrecked when I came too."

Syaoran's chestnut eyes narrowed. He was thankful he arrived in time to protect the girl, that was for sure but he was most unsettled by the fact that he couldn't sense anyone's presence. Was it a card after all? But weren't all the cards captured? No, just because it was said all the cards have been taken care of, it didn't rule them out completely. The unexpected always happened around Sakura after all. Eventually they figured card or not, they would attempt to seal it anyway. Anything was worth a shot to prevent more damage from spreading. They couldn't risk the chance of the whatever-it –was to move to a different location.

Before long, they pinpointed the 'card's' location. Although the battle took longer than usual, they eventually managed to return the card back into its paper form. Having fought in so many battles together so often, the pair had long ago perfected the art of teamwork. Looking out for each other's backs as well as performing coordinated attacks came practically as second nature. Finally noticing a weak point, Syaoran immediately directed Sakura to make quick or work of the card and sealed it with almost no problem.

Sakura nodded and obediently captured it. "Clow card return to your true form, confined!" With the usual light performance and fluttering wind, the large dark miasma-like orb shrunk and slowly took form of a card. It remained in the air for a second longer before floating down to the green-eyed girl.

Sakura hesitantly laid her fingers on it, the magic around it dispelling and the card settled into her hands. It read "The Destruction" in a fancy cursive script across the bottom of the card. It looked a little unusual compared to her other cards. It wasn't brown in color nor was it pink. It was a deep purple. The pair of card captors frowned. Something was definitely not right. But as it stood now, they had no information, and they couldn't exactly drill a card to speak…especially one that held no ability of speech.

After frowning at the card for another moment longer, Sakura turned to Syaoran with the intention of thanking him, but was quickly distracted from that purpose when she noticed a large rip in his sleeve and blood darkening the area. "S-Syaoran-kun! Your arm! Are you alright?" She gingerly placed a hand on his arm to inspect the damage, but he jerked his arm away. A blush crept up his neck and was quickly reaching his cheeks.

"I'm fine," he muttered roughly.

She turned her large worried emerald orbs to his chestnut ones, and Syaoran couldn't help but be drawn in. They were dark with worry but so mesmerizing. He mentally shook himself out of his stupor. He was acting enough like an idiot as it was.

"Are you sure?" Her eyebrows were knit together, and her teeth were gnawing on her lips.

Syaoran almost smiled, but quickly squashed it. "Fine. It's not a serious wound."

"Serious or not, let me wrap it. It's my fault you're hurt to begin with," she insisted. Before he could make a word of protest, she had torn off a piece of sleeve and was already bandaging his arm.

Syaoran embarrassed already quickly averted his eyes when he found himself staring at her as she worked. It was really rather cute, he thought. The way her eyebrows would draw together and the way she stuck her tongue out slightly as she worked.

"There, done." She smiled proudly at her handiwork. "Get it treated once you get home, 'kay?"

He nodded. "It's time for me to leave now. Report this to Yue and the stuffed animal immediately."

She nodded in understanding. She watched as he disappeared, sighing wistfully once he was gone. This wasn't good. She was falling deeper and deeper, to the point where concentrating on a battle with him close by was difficult. Was love supposed to make someone feel this way? She didn't know.

Sakura looked up and noticed the sky was beginning to darken. Had she been out for that long already? Anyway, no time to think about things like romance when the town might be in danger.

When she finally got back home, Sakura ate her dinner quickly being careful to avoid her brother and his teasing and hurriedly ran up the stairs to her room. The two men who remained sitting in the dining room only exchanged knowing glances before returning to their dinner.

"Tch, so that brat helped you again."

"Syaoran-kun's not a brat!"

"Yeah yeah. Let me see the card."

She pulled the card from her purse and handed it to the guardian.

Kero turned it over in his paws several times inspecting every single little detail, his frown becoming more pronounced as the seconds ticked by. "I don't remember this card, and I have a pretty darn good memory of every single one of them. This isn't a Clow Card."

"…Then what is it? It became a card, see?"

The small guardian shrugged before handing the card back to the card captor. "We'll talk to Yue tomorrow after school. Don't think he'll know what it is either, but it's worth a shot. If we don't get anything, we can still make plans." After all, Clow Reed was powerful and eccentric. He had as many friends as he did enemies. It could very well be an old adversary who was hoping to destroy Sakura as his 'heir'. But that wasn't fact as of yet, so he wouldn't tell his charge. No need to worry the poor girl right when tests were just around the corner.

"Mm, okay" she agreed readily. Although the other guardian was still a little cold towards her, he was beginning to warm up to her. As intimidating as he was, she knew Yue would never hurt her.

That night, Sakura slept uneasily. Thoughts were running across her mind at a thousand miles an hour. Her tossing and turning finally had Kero telling her to quit thinking and just go to bed.

- - - - - - - - -

Alright, that's it for chapter one. It's really short compared to the things I'm working on NOW, but hey, this is an old old story that wasn't ever supposed to see the light of day again. Still, I'd appreciate it if anyone reviews though.


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